Google Enables Profile Sharing for Google Health

Google is allowing users of its Google Health solution to share their medical records and other personal health information with trusted contacts. Google's latest addition to its health care IT portfolio is helping to keep the search engine giant relevant against the likes of Microsoft and health-care-specific Web sites such as WebMD.

Google has upgraded its Google Health solution, now allowing users to share their
medical records and other personal health information with doctors, family
members and other trusted contacts.
Google Health is designed to let patients create health
profiles, search for doctors and online health services, and automatically
update their medical records. It was first
introduced by Google CEO Eric Schmidt in February 2008 at a Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society conference.

Users of Google Health can type in an e-mail address of a
physician, relative or health-care provider, who will then be sent a link to the
user's profile. The link expires after 30 days, and the profile is read-only to
invitees; at the same time, the application generates an activity report so the
user can see who has viewed their profile.
According to the company, making such information accessible
by a select group of people, from virtually anywhere with a Web connection, can
offer substantial benefits.
"Just a few years ago, my father suffered a minor heart
attack and was sent to the ER. I arrived on the scene in a panic, and was asked
what medications he was taking. To my surprise, I had no clue," Sameer Samat, director of product management for Google,
wrote on the company's official blog. "If my father had a Google Health
account, and had shared his profile with me, I would have been up-to-date on his
current medications."
In addition, Google has introduced a printing feature that
includes a "wallet format," so allergy and medication information can be placed
on an easily portable card, and a graphing feature that lets users visually plot
out medical information such as their cholesterol level.
Several issues have been raised and debated about Google
Health since its inception, including whether Google
will attempt to monetize the service by posting ads.

In January, privacy rights group Consumer Watchdog suggested
the company was backing a lobbying effort to OK the sale of electronic medical
records, which could then be sold to potential Google Health advertisers. Google
hit back in the strongest possible terms.
"This claim - based on no evidence whatsoever - is 100
percent false and unfounded. Google does not sell health data," Pablo Chavez,
senior policy counsel for Google, wrote in a blog post at the time. "In fact,
one of our most steadfast privacy principles is that we don't sell our users'
personal data, whether it's stored in Google Health, Gmail or in any of our
products. And from a policy perspective, we oppose the sale of medical
information in the health care industry."

Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.